onsdag 13 september 2017

One person can have a positive effect in the world. And together a large number of persons can have an even greater positive effect in the world. For the benefit of everyone! Below you will find two videos. Both are in English but one of them is with Swedish subtitles for all swedes visiting Rörelse för djurrätt. On the filmmakers website you will find the video in about 15 different languages.I'm not sure that all the numbers that are mentioned in the videos are 100 % correct. But I think the essence of the message will come through, that there are many benefits of a vegan lifestyle.

In this post you will find a video from Mayim Bialik's YouTube channel in which she explains why she is a vegan. Listen to her powerful message!You might know Mayim Bialik from TV shows like Big Bang Theory and Blossom.

A new documentary trying to give two sides of the story when it comes to marine mammals living in captivity is called Inside The Tanks.It has been available for about three months on YouTube. Find the trailer below and the full documentary that is 33 minutes long on the link. Check it out!

A few days ago a giant demonstration took place in Tel Aviv, Israel. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people marched for an end of animal cruelty. According to one source the activists also demanded harsher punishments for animal abusers, an end to shipments of live animals and the barring sales of furs in Israel.The video below is from the event.

Hur mår kon? (presented in English) (15.00 - 15.45)Today there's an increasing amount of critical opinions about the current milk industry and alternatives based on plants keep popping up. We take a closer look on how cow's milk end up on our tables.Presented by Jana Canavan, Ph.D at Lund university.https://lu.academia.edu/JCanavan

torsdag 24 augusti 2017

Many filmmakers want us to feel something when we watch their movies. Some movies make us feel happy, other movies sad and then there are the ones that make us feel devastated. In this post you might find one of each.

Kedi

Let us start with Kedi, which is a documentary about seven cats and the humans around them in Istanbul, Turkey. I recently saw it at Kino in Lund, Sweden. To me it was nice to see the cats and a bit heartwarming to see the people that are helping them. I wish more people took action to help homeless and exposed cats and other animals in the world.

Kedi - Official U.S. Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories

War for the Planet of the Apes

Next up is a very interesting story. It is a sequel in the most recent Planet of the Apes film series. It's called War for the Planet of the Apes. And as I said I found it very interesting, when I saw it in Malmö some weeks ago. From my perspective it is actually one of the most socially critical movies I have seen. And that is a good thing. So it is very recommended.

War for the Planet of the Apes | Final Trailer

Dominion

Then there's Dominion. Probably a very important documentary but tough to watch. It's about the animal industries in Australia and it has been inspired by Earthlings. I will probably not watch this documentary. But at the same time a lot of people probably need to see what humans are doing to other beings. It's not cute, it's not pretty, it's horrible. And not okay. It will be released in March 2018.

söndag 20 augusti 2017

California based sanctuary Animal Place save animals from slaughter, give the animals a home and also promotes veganism.In July 2017 they legally liberated 2,000 hens from cages on an egg farm, 1 week before the hens would have been gassed to death. Watch the video

tisdag 15 augusti 2017

Yesterday the animal rights group Tomma burar (in English: Empty cages) organizedan event against a slaughterhouse in Linköping, Sweden.A group of more than thirty animal rights activists sat down outside the slaughterhouse gates, where trucks with animals headed for slaughter drive through.The activists acted on the basis of (non-violent) civil disobedience. They stopped trucks from delivering animals to the slaughterhouse for a couple of hours. After that police came and eventually removed the still sitting down activists.This was the first sit-down of this kind outside a slaughterhouse in Sweden for about ten years.Tomma burars website (see English in the menu).Tomma burars Facebook page

fredag 28 juli 2017

This sunny morning I'm sitting in front of my computer in Lund, Sweden where I live. I just found out about Kenny & Jasmine Levya's documentary The Invisible Vegan.The makers of The Invisible Vegan want to put African American vegans in the spotlight. You can support this movie for about two more months on Indiegogo.The trailer contains some unpleasant scenes. Official website here and Facebook page here.

söndag 23 juli 2017

A new animal rights documentary called Land of Hope and Glory will soon be released online. It covers animal farming industries in the United Kingdom.The makers of the film are the founders of animal rights organization Surge. Find more information about Surge on their website. One more thing about Surge. They hosted the first Official Animal Rights March in London in 2016, now in 2017 they will host it again with help from The Save Movement and HeartCure Collective in September. More info about the march on theofficialanimalrightsmarch.com.

Back to the movie! You will be able to watch it from August 1st on landofhopeandglory.org. I don't now that much about the documentary, yet. I found out about it after London based Plant Based News shared its trailer on their Facebook page.

tisdag 27 juni 2017

Parrot Confidential is an episode from the series Nature that has been broadcast on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the USA. It is about parrots kept as pets.

If you live in the USA you can probably watch the full episode from 2013 (season 32 episode 9) on PBS website. And the rest of us might find it on YouTube. Here below is a preview of the episode. About the episode from YouTube:

"Their outrageous intelligence and uncanny ability to communicate in any language has made parrots one of the world's most popular pets. But unlike dogs and cats, parrots have not been domesticated. Hardwired for the wild, their high decible squawks and complex behavior are designed for the wild. Add a lifespan of up to 70+ years with their intense need to bond, and a life in captivity doesn't always have a happy ending."

söndag 11 juni 2017

I found out about the movieHerd after I had been looking for interesting documentaries and other movies with horses on the Internet.I found it since it had been awarded for best director at the horse oriented Equus Film Festival in New York City. So I found it on the this film festival's site.So far I've only seen the trailer and a short version of the full length film, but I can tell you that it is a very beautifully filmed movie. Find the trailer and the short film below or at herdfilm.com.Herd is written and directed by Stefan Morel. The movie follows artist, author and animal communicator Liz Mitten Ryan and the participants at her retreat center.I find Herd to be a very humble film and the documentary Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home comes to my mind. Have a look!

onsdag 31 maj 2017

At the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa kind people take care of orphaned baby Vervet monkeys. Kyle Salazar has made a documentary about the foundation and the situation of the Vervet monkeys. These monkeys habitat are under threat of destruction.

The Orange Gunny is a short film from Iran about compassion, poverty, caring and sharing.I was surfing the Internet and found an interesting short film from 2014 written and directed by Mehrdad Zahraei. The Orange Gunny, that is less than five minutes long, gives us a glimpse of what it's like to live in poverty for a young child. But the story is also about compassion. From my view it is also about caring and sharing.From my own experience I know that when one doesn't have very much it is sometimes easier to share with those who have even less. Maybe because it is easier to understand what it's like to have a very small amount of - for example - money, and being able to put oneself in someone else's shoes.Watch the thoughtful The Orange Gunny and tell me what you think of it in the comment section, thanks!

In only a few days the trailer to Okja has been viewed more than 1.000.000 times on YouTube! Watch the trailer below!

Okja is a South Korean-American action-adventure film directed by Bong Joon-ho. With actors Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano and Jake Gyllenhaal.From my view the movie seems to have a animal rights message. Could it be a message to us in the west to stop eating pigs and a message to people in the east to stop eating dogs? Or maybe a more universal message to approach the animals with empathy and love? Well, I don't know since I haven't seen it. We will just have to wait until we get a better view 😉It had its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on May 18th. It will be available on Netflix on June 28th.

Canadian photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur's latest book project is called Captive: the Book.With her camera Jo-Anne McArthur has documented individual animals living in captivity. You can find more information on weanimals.org. On Amazon.com you can have a look inside this book and order it as well.

Her book from 2013 called We Animals can also be ordered from Amazon.com where you can have a look inside.Watch an interview with McArthur here. If you want to know more about her and her work, I recommend the animal rights documentary The Ghosts In Our Machine in which filmmaker Liz Marshall follow McArthur as the film's protagonist.

fredag 28 april 2017

Empathy is the name of a Spanish documentary. The executive producer & director Ed Antoja has a central part in the film.

"Ed is commissioned to make a documentary intending to change those habits of society that are harmful to animals. But completely alien to the animal protection movement; he will realize that to carry out the project, he must first convince himself.The process of documenting the film and Ed’s interactions with Jenny, a collaborator of FAADA (the animal foundation that commissioned the film) will serve to contrast his doubts and look for answers on how to live in a manner that is more responsible towards animals."

tisdag 18 april 2017

The Game Changers is a movie directed by Louie Psihoyos (Racing Extinction, The Cove) with James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic) as executive producer. I found out about The Game Changers in a video from Plant Based News. You can also read their article on this link where you also will find the video I'm talking about.On The Game Changerswebsite there is not that much information but you can read the following:

"From the UFC Octagon in Las Vegas and the anthropology lab at Dartmouth, to a strongman gym in Berlin and the bushlands of Zimbabwe, The Game Changers will introduce the world to elite athletes, special ops soldiers, visionary scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes—each on a mission to create a seismic shift in the way we eat and live."

According to the website the movie will be released in 2017. Find an interview with the movie director here.

A movie that people in the vegan community have been talking about - a lot(!) to be precise - the last weeks is Carnage that is written and directed by comedian Simon Amstell.So some days ago I watched it. By the way it could be called Carnage: Swallowing the past? Well, honestly I'm not sure about the title. But I found the film itself interesting and it could even be a powerful cultural contribution to the modern human's view of himself/herself...If you want to have a look at it then you will probably find it on YouTube. I want to hear what you have to say about it. So do comment in this post if you feel like it 😉

tisdag 14 mars 2017

In January 2017 the French National Assembly passed a bill for mandatory cameras in all French slaughterhouses!

This is a big and important step - some even call it historic. I believe this could be a way of showing how the animals in the abattoirs are being treated, and maybe also to control what happens there. But of course it doesn't necessarily mean that it will change anything in reality for the animals going to slaughter - but let us hope for the best! Especially when animal activists like the ones in L214 expose what is happening behind the abattoirs closed doors.The podcasters The Bearded Vegans talks about the bill in episode 64 (after 23 minutes). And you can read more about it in these articles:

A quick historic flashback to 1949 and the French documentary Blood of the Beasts (Original title: Le Sang des bêtes), written and directed by Georges Franju,
was filmed in a Parisian abattoir. The 20 minutes short documentary
contains explicit scenes of animals being killed. I wonder how the
viewers reacted when they saw the film, and if they kept what they saw in their hearts?Another short documentary, this time about a slaughterhouse worker, is The Reaper. Find a post about it with trailer here.

In Sweden the first so called "vigils" have been held by Skåne Pig Save. This means people gather nearby a slaughterhouse to witness the animals that are going to slaughter. This movement origin from Canada, it started in 2010, and now there are about 100 save groups around the world. Find more information on thesavemovement.org.

We have seen many horrors and it is time to change. To raise awareness
about how animals are being treated and finally end this mass animal
exploitation is important not only for the animals but also for the
environment and for humans. We have to do something, and we have to change!

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Om/About

In English: Rörelse för djurrätt is a blog supporting the idea of animal rights. It started out in Swedish but now I'm also blogging in English.Feel free to comment and drop by again. Find more information under Om/About in the menu./Christoffer Edström